Their Eyes Were Watching God

Rating:
Summary: Their Eyes Were Watching God
Review: I had a hard time deciding between writing about Their Eyes Were Watching God and Malcom X. Both books drew many feelings out of me. However, the main character Janie brought something out of me that inspired me to write. I found myself relating to her in so many ways and wishing that she would one day have the life that she truly deserved.

When the book first started, I felt sorry for Janie. She was the gossip of the town and had only one true friend. The sad thing was that people mainly disliked Janie because of her beauty, not because of her character. Many were simply jealous. Deep down I could never imagine what is would be like to be raised by any one other than my parents. True enough, she had the love of her grandmother, but never knowing your parents seems unbearable. Once I read on, I came to think...how could she ever really know herself without meeting her parents? Having my parents as a vital role within my life helps complete me. I'm blessed to know both of them inside and out and through them, I find my identity, my history, and most importantly myself. There must have been a deep hole that could never be filled for Janie since she did not have the same opportunity with her parents (or even one parent for that matter). Perhaps she expected men to fill this hole. I know personally I could never be whole without my parents. Then on top of that, she only had stories to go off of to learn what her mom was really like.

Janie's first marriage to Logan did not go as expected. However she trusted the words of her grandmother and hoped that one day she could ignore the love she didn't have for him to focus on his wealth and be thankful. Those words sound so familiar. My mom has told me on more than one occasion that you marry for finance not romance (but she claims that with my father she was lucky to receive both :) ). Nanny's words sounded like a replica of my mother's. I sympathized with Janie because how could you marry and stay with someone that you didn't love. It seems impossible. I always thought that love was more important than the wealth and possessions of a man.

Throughout the novel, Janie seems to search for this ideal horizon of how she wants her life to be. As a reader, this kept me interested because the author creates this sense of hope for Janie within the novel. This leaves the reader wanting the best for Janie and hoping that by the conclusion of the novel, her happiness will be attained. Isn't everyone on a quest in life? Don't we all have this ideal image of how we want our purpose of life to be served? One of the saddest things for me to imagine is for someone to go through life unhappy. You only have one life. Why shouldn't it be the best that it could possibly be? I believe with all my heart that happiness is something that we all deserve. Through Janie's ups and downs, I remained hopeful that her character would find that something to fill the hole in her heart. I hoped that one day she could be complete and find the happiness that everyone deserved.

I believe that this book speaks to women. This is my opinion. I would find it hard to believe that a woman would not be able to identify with some aspect of this book. I could personally relate to so many! This book touched me in regards to the absence of her parents in her life and also within her quest to find her horizon that would grant her the happiness that she never had. However, I found the main themes to center around identity and happiness. I felt that this book also lets women know how they should be treated. If you know who you are and you are happy with who you are, you will know exactly what you deserve in life and you will come to realize that settling is not an option.

I hope that future readers enjoy this book as much as I did, especially women readers. Within this book, there are so many things that women can relate to. Happy reading!!!

Rating:
Summary: english 230
Review: I thought that "Their Eyes were Watching God" by Zora Neale Hurston was an extraordinary novel. I believe that it's not only a feminist novel, but any person that is fascinated and touched by the power of love will definitely be attracted to this novel. It conveys the struggles this young African American woman went through to find her life companion, soul mate and lover. What really attracted me to the character Janie was how she tended to get back up on her feet despite her numerous falls. Moreover, the construction of the novel and the slang that was used made me, as the reader, feel as if I personally knew her and felt every sorrow and happiness that she went through. Janie conveys a determined and strong character. Throughout her beginning life, she felt the lack of affection and emotional love. Her being forced to think that love is revealed after marriage was really a myth that her grandmother embedded in her mind. Her grandmother's downfalls in life taught her that poverty is the main necessity for a fulfiller and happier marriage. The failing of her first marriage causes her to realize that poverty it not the basis of love. Poverty was just a way that her grandmother thought would protect her. I think that when Janie followed and lived with this myth, she just ended up wasting her time. When she finally does find her ideal love, it made me feel her happiness and overwhelming passion that was tucked away for so long. She ultimately found and brought to light passions that were hidden in her. It's hard to believe how she can still reveal love and affection even though she was never able to show it. Her suffered and bruised heart was healed with the power of love. Her last marriage is what she always dreamed of. The ending of the novel is surprising and it will shock you. I recommend this novel to every reader so that they can be moved by it as I was!

Rating:
Summary: English 230
Review: Zora Neale Hurston's novel Their Eyes Were Watching God is a wonderful piece of fiction that keeps you interested and guessing all the way. The novel constits of many characters that help inspire the novel in many ways. The main character, Janie, is an African- American woman that struggles her whole life to find " true love" in her marriages. Being victims of rape, her mother and grandmother have placed an image for love of men different from her feelings of what love should be. Another factor that stood in her way of being happy was the fact that she was an African American woman at that time. At her time, the African American woman had to struggle with the world around her. Most women at that time were not respected or treated the way a woman should be. So it revels the hardships that many African American women went through at that time. Unfortunately for Janie she had to go through two marriages before she finds "true love." I found this very saddening because being a woman I could relate to the lost feelings she yearned for. Love is a wonderful feeling and comes in many different forms. For example, the love you have towards a child is different from the love a wife would have for her husband. As you read through the hard times Janie yearns for love from a companion, you sort of feel what she is feeling. It's as if you can feel the sadness she is feeling. Then when she does find love with her third husband, you feel the sparks and love they have for one another. The best part of the story was the ending. It is a definite shocker and will touch your heart. This was an excellent novel that keeps you guessing. It's very romantic, sad, dramatic and brings feelings of anger as you read. I would encourage everyone to read it!

Rating:
Summary: Strength and beauty
Review: Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God is a beautiful text, which shows strength in the face of hardship. The main character, Janie, takes the reader on a journey through her life. She recalls her first love, her three marriages, and her eventual return to the place where she was raised.

Janie is a strong and determined character. She longs to see the beauty in life and hopes to experience all she can. She imagines her first love, and dreams of being in his arms, saying, "[I] saw a dust-bearing bee sink into the sanctum of a bloom; the thousand sister-calyxes arch to meet the love embrace and the ecstatic shiver of the tree from root to tiniest branch creaming in every blossom and frothing with delight" (11).

However, as Janie is dreaming of the beauty life has to offer, her grandmother is facing the harsh reality. Nanny worries for Janie's safety, and knowing she will soon die, strives to marry Janie off into comfort. Nanny has experienced first hand the struggles life offers, and hopes for a better life for her granddaughter.

Janie is married to Logan Killicks, the choice of Nanny, but he is far from the ideal Janie has imagined for herself. She wanted a fairy tale romance, but instead sacrificed that for a monetary relationship with him. Far from being his wife, as she would have hoped, she is instead treated as a daughter and a worker.

Janie leaves Logan, only to fall for another man, Joe Starks. He too is financially stable, and offers Janie an easier lifestyle as the Mayor's wife. He dresses her up, and parades her around, but she has no voice in the relationship. Joe is unable to emotionally sustain her, and even resorts to violence against her, verbally attacking her for miniscule mistakes. She longs to be part of the group outside, talking and joking, but is unable to be herself when she is around Joe. Her thoughts flash back to the love she once dreamed about underneath the pear tree.

Janie eventually finds this love with Tea Cake, her third husband. The two work side by side in the Everglades picking beans, and live in a shack much different from the comfortable home Janie was used to. However, the daily toil was well worth it to the couple, which enjoyed every second they shared together.

When a hurricane threatens to wipe out the hope where the two were living, Janie and Tea Cake set off for higher ground. While Tea Cake finally falls asleep from exhaustion, Janie looks for something to cover him with. She grabs a piece of roofing, and ends up falling into the rising waters. Screaming for Tea Cake, Janie is floating face to face with a rabid dog. Tea Cake rushes to rescue her, but before killing the dog, he is bit on the face.

Janie is forced to make the most difficult decision of her life. In a split second, she is forced to choose between her life and his. Though I cannot give away what happens, I can say the novel does not end bitterly. Janie eventually returns to the life she had left long ago. Amidst the gossip, she reveals the true story of her life to her best friend Phoeby. She tells her, "Love is lak de sea. It's a movin' thing, but still and all, it takes its shape from de shore it meets" (191). Janie says that the love her and Tea Cake shared was like this lake. It was so strong, it was able to sustain them while they were together and while apart.

Throughout the novel, the reader sees the trials and struggles Janie faces while growing up. However, these never keep her down. She faces loss from the opening page through the last, but her strength and willingness to accept and see the good make this novel a beautiful and inspiring work.

Rating:
Summary: Their eyes were watching
Review: This is the story of one woman's struggle to find her personal space in a world dominated by White people and Black men. This is also a love story of one woman who had a vision of what true love would look like. On page 11, Janie describes in such poetic language what a perfect love match is. I tingle in delight. I read this piece over and over. It is beautiful! Read on. As a young girl daydreaming in her grandmother's back yard, she looks to nature to describe what a marriage made of love looks like. On a beautiful spring day, lying relaxed under the pear tree, she watches a "dust bearing bee sink into the sanctum of a bloom; the thousand sister-calyxes arch to meet the love embrace and the ecstatic shiver of the tree from root to tiniest branch creaming in every blossom and frothing with delight. So this was a marriage!" Janie was honored to behold such a revelation. "She felt pain remorseless sweet that left her limp and languid". Thus, begins Janie's heart held hope of a love that could match the love mating phenomenon of nature.
I would recommend that every Black woman and man for that matter, read Zora Neale Hurston's Their Eyes were Watching God. I think men and women will enjoy reading the book because it is a story of relationships between men and women, their attitudes and thoughts during the 1930's. The story is told in first person, but we glimpse the attitudes of the men through Janie's narrative. Women were expected to be obedient and subservient to their men. Men showed their love through their provision for the family, not through a lot of romantic dreaming. That women needed men to take of them was instilled in Janie before her grandmother died. Janie was forced to marry her first husband so that grandmother could die in peace knowing that her granddaughter would be taken care of.
When smooth talking Jody Sparks came along, promising to take her away from such a life, and place on her rightful pedestal, Janie at first hesitated, because Jody did not represent pear blossoming trees of love either. But Jody represented freedom, and hope. She flung off the apron that tied her to Killicks, and ran off and married Jody.
Janie was forced to suppress her selfhood under her husbands' dreams for himself. Janie was not allowed to speak her own thoughts, nor was she able to be what she needed to be. Would Janie be able to hold fast to her dreams of love and marriage despite the seemingly contradictions of her actions in marrying men who could not fulfill her dreams. Janie's character is strong in this story, yet she is considered meek and feminine. Although her marriages were unfulfilling and loveless, Janie does not make a move on her own to end them. She takes action only with the help of fate knocking at her door. When new man Tea Cakes enters Janie's life could he be the "love thoughts" of women? You'll have to read the book to find out if this was Janie's life long dream of love and personal freedom or just another flaw in the line of busted dreams.

Rating:
Summary: their eyes
Review: As you journey through the world of fiction reading, I would suggest the book Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston for your reading pleasure. This story shows how a women struggles to find her identity and inner happiness despite her lifetime of disappointments. I like this book, because it deals with many issues of woman empowerment. The struggle that Janie experienced then, can very well relate to other situations that occur with the woman of today. As a teen, Janie is forced by her Nanny to marry an older man, Logan Killicks, for protection and stability as a last wish to her aging grandmother. I don't believe that this wish was a fair one for Janie's grandmother to make. Although, Nanny was trying to look out for the well being of her granddaughter, I believe that this demand left a deep scar on Janie's life.
As Janie goes on in life, she is introduced to two more men who soon become her husbands too. In each marriage, Janie struggles with quietly submitting her thoughts fully. To the men in her life, if a sense of talk back or freedom of speech was exercised, a slap to the face was her reward. It is clear to see by the end of the book that Janie was simply looking for love in all the wrong places. This book brings up many questions that I thought about while reading. Does the absence of Janie's mother and father have a lot to do with Janie's long-term struggles? Do you feel that Nanny's dying wish was a fair one? Their Eyes Were Watching God is an intense book. In order to get the full understanding of this book, you have to read it. In my opinion, it left me wanting for more in the end. If you go through emotions like happiness, sadness and nervousness you know then that this book is complex and keeps you on the edge of your seats.
Their Eyes Were Watching God, and award-winning novel.

Rating:
Summary: An Interesting Glimpse
Review: I read this book because I was a substitute teacher for an 11th grade literature class that was reading the book. Though it is not a book I would normally read, I enjoyed the glimpse Zora Hurston gave me into early 20th-century African American culture in the south. The literature class I was sitting in on drew out the symbolism of the two husbands prior to Tea Cup. And how this symbolized black women at that time in history. I found this interesting. I also enjoyed the postscript on the life of Zora Hurston, and how obscure she was until several years after her death. While the students complained about the African American slang, I enjoyed it and found that it made the story more real in my mind. The author used a lot of similes and metaphors that made the book fun to read.

Rating:
Summary: ENG 230-01
Review: Their Eyes Were Watching God is a novel that can be read and appreciated by women of all colors. Zora Neal Hurston deals with the emotions of one young African American woman, Janie, and the three men who have come into her life. The author keeps us in Janie's mind even when she is not in the first person. She starts out in flashback, girlfriend to girlfriend telling her story to her neighbor and best friend Pheoby. We women are more prone to share our feelings with another about things, especially our great and not so great loves. In this story, Janie had it all.
The first man was Logan Killicks, who is her older, unattractive but financially stable first husband. This was an arranged marriage by her grandmother. I tried to remember what I was like as a teen at her age and couldn't begin to imagine how I would accept being setup to marry an old man who was looking for free labor for his farm in the form of a wife. I put myself in Janie's place and I know that is the time of life when we have all these dreams about love and life and how that one special man is out there for us.
Even though we were born in different times and places, at her age I thought I was going to live a fairy tale with the man of my dreams as most girls do. Then life takes over and in her case it took over way too young. Janie dreams about the love she thinks may be in her future and then she gets married to this old guy. The young Janie struggles and tries to find some personal fulfillment in this loveless marriage but it does not happen. I had very mixed emotions about Janie at this point in her life. She acted spoiled and lazy and I had to keep reminding myself that she was acting like a normal teenage girl. She had all the temperament and emotion that goes along with a difficult stage of growing up.
The second man is Joe Starks who entices her with words, his dreams and his plans for the future. I started to believe this was going to be it for Janie. He told her that she would not work for him but rather have others doing things for her. I should have known that if it sounds too good to be true it usually is. While Joe was intelligent and aggressive and quite the entrepreneur I think Joe was worse for her. While he successfully provides for her, this relationship is not good. I would hate to be treated like a possession and a man talking down to me as if I cannot be his equal would be insulting and unacceptable to me. This is how Joe treated Janie. He is verbally abusive and jealous and he wants Janie to be seen and envied but not heard. What I like in this part of the book was Hurston starts to tell you what Janie is feeling and thinking. You start to rally behind her and I waited for her to just tell Joe where to go. I started to appreciate Janie's opinions and thoughts but wanted her to speak up more then she did. The physical abuse was intolerable to me. Violence towards women was common and accepted at the time. I wish that was when Hurston had given her the voice and courage to stand up for herself and liberate herself from him. That is easy for me to say being the reader who is not in danger and involved in a domestic dispute.
Her third marriage was with the fun-loving and wild Tea Cake. She shares more with him then the other two combined. He offers little in the way financial security, which was the opposite of the first two, but he offers much more in the way of sharing and introducing her to life experiences. You see more emotion in Janie when she is with him then throughout the first half of the book. While reading, I was not quite sure if he was a gold-digger out to woo a wealthy woman or if he was truly interested in Janie herself. Looking for the balance here, I would want the financial security Joe provided with the romance and fun experienced with Tea Cake. That would be perfect for all of us but not likely possible. Being a realist though I know that life does not work that way for most of us, and it did not for Janie. I know that when it is the right man, sometimes the rules go out the window along with logic and for Janie, Tea Cake was the right man and the life he offered her was what she accepted and embraced because she was with him. At least Janie got to experience the "love of her life" even though she had to go through a lot to get to that point. Read this book for an emotional roller coaster ride and watch a young girl grow and learn about the world and herself through her relationships along the way.

Rating:
Summary: Janie's life
Review: Janie doesn't feel hood wher the professor at her school takes her picture and she realizes for the first time that she is black . She feels like a tourist and her oan family-she doesn't belong . She was six years old when she made this discovery. She finds happiness with Tea Cake, her third husband, and she also comes to feel egual other people. Iike when Tea Cake serenaded Janie and she felt truly happy for the first time.I like in this novel about the Tea Cake and Janie.I like when Tea Cake and Janie olways they're together,They enyoyed many things a lot of. I like when Tea Cake go to the Janie's house and he played the quitar to Janie . They love so mach . They affrot good and bad thinks. I like that it.

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Summary: Three books
Review: Three books that must be read if you're interested in race,the South, and the conflict within the human heart: TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD, BARK OF THE DOGWOOD, and this one, THEIR EYES WERE WATCHING GOD. All three are similar with their well-defined characters and descriptions. I was amazed at the similarities in these books, as well as Sue Monk Kidd's SECRET LIFE OF BEES.